jerseyhoya wrote:If we win the Senate, McConnell will be majority leader. Not gonna pick up 7 seats, and lose one in freaking Kentucky.

so Cornyn would be a Cruz hand-puppet? I thought I'd asked a simple question, sorry

The majority leader serves at the will of the caucus. Anyone will have to balance the Cruz/Paul crowd and the McCain/Graham bunch as well. And it seems most Republican senators don't much like Ted Cruz, so the extent you have to cater to him is pretty much just the making sure he is happy enough that he doesn't fuck up the Senate using individual prerogatives too often. Cornyn doesn't need to win a Republican primary in Texas until 2020. I don't really understand why he'd be more of a puppet for Cruz than McConnell or why you're worrying about this at all because McConnell will be the leader.

jerseyhoya wrote:I don't really understand why he'd be more of a puppet for Cruz than McConnell or why you're worrying about this at all because McConnell will be the leader.

McConnell couldn't lead a broom closet. His big idea was making the hated brown man a 1-term president. We'll need a new term for the role should he by some mischance actually be in a position to fulfill this wish of yours.

http://m.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/05/06/the-perils-of-privatized-probation/

Solid article outlining the absurdity of privatizing prisons. In addition to the inherent issue of needing to keep as many people imprisoned to help the bottom line, "justice" is almost universally given to inner city youths who can't afford a competent defense...everyone knows that but what's worse is often times these private firms who are contracted out by the states impose fees, drug classes, etc. that are not ordered by a judge and jury but by the firm themselves...essentially they are extorting money from disadvantaged communities in this country. Many states also exempt these firms from full disclosure laws that regulate public prisons, it's just absurd and completely out of control.

I remember people being concerned about those issues when GW was going on his prison building campaign. Of course, people were also afraid he was going to start rounding up citizens on political grounds.

Come to think of it, maybe that's what did happen given the composition of the prison population.

One of the things I'm happiest about with Obama is the fact that he started addressing this issue. He hasn't done enough, but it's hard when you have to govern by executive order because the other party opposes EVERYTHING you do, even if they agreed with it in the past.

jerseyhoya wrote:

so good

lat-vita

chip-po-lay


lol

al sharpton is bad at tv

/notahottake

The sneeze/cough/Idon'tknowwhat at the end killed me.

In responses to the news that the US is sending military, intelligence and law enforcement assistance ot Nigeria to help find the 276 girls kidnapped by Islamic terrorists, Glenn Greenwald wrote:

The ability to ignore virtually all history when advocating for The Next Western Intervention is as impressive as it is horrifying

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 7, 2014

Yes, this is EXACTLY THAT. the inability for him to factor in nuance, levels of scale, or anything except blame the horrible West gets old. What is worse is he has a big following.

Oh, and he called anyone who disagreed with him an 'Obama loyalist'. OK?

We're sending like 60 people. There were more people at Charlie Sheen's intervention.

moron Charle Krauthammer (Republican thought leader) chimes in with stupid people opinion about climate change

And you always see that no matter what happens, whether it's a flood or it's a drought, whether it's one — it's warming or cooling, it's always a result of what is ultimately what we're talking about here, human sin with the pollution of carbon. It's the oldest superstition around. It was in the Old Testament. It's in the rain dance of the Native Americans. If you sin, the skies will not cooperate. This is quite superstitious, and I'm waiting for science which doesn't declare itself definitive but is otherwise convincing.

"E equals M C squared, probably"- A. Einstein

We have marriage equality in Arkansas for the time being at least. Marriage licenses are being issued.

In fairness sin is in several of the equations.

Rob Ford - One Wild Night in March

I've enjoyed the Rob Ford Tragicomedy more than I should have probably because this story more than crosses the line of funny/sad/self destructive to holy fucking shit you're a scary, dangerous dude who needs help before you kill someone.

SK790 wrote:In fairness sin is in several of the equations.

I laughed.

JH - is it going to be Baraka or Jeffries tomorrow?

Also, I wanted to give a shout-out to PiP for his work a few posts back; I think it deserved some recognition. It was like something Jeff Ross might've said at the Sheen roast.

traderdave wrote:JH - is it going to be Baraka or Jeffries tomorrow?

I don't know. The endorsements have been weird. Seems like most of the regular Dems are backing Jeffries, with Fulop and Codey as the main notables backing Baraka. There hasn't really been public polling. One leaked last week that had Jeffries up 4%, but most stuff I've read suggests Baraka is the frontrunner.

Pretty good write up of the race from a few days ago in the NYT - Newark Mayoral Race Seen as Referendum on Booker